Edited by Nina Goga and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 7] 2017
► pp. 17–39
Maps in children’s literature vary in many ways, for example, by representing real or imagined places; employing abstract or pictorial symbols; and depicting spaces at differing scales, orientations, and viewing angles. Although authors and illustrators may presume that children readily “see through” such maps to understand their underlying meaning, cognitive-developmental research suggests otherwise. This chapter reviews children’s developing representational and spatial concepts and their relevance for map understanding; contrasts perspectives of geography, literature, and cognitive development; and urges that future researchers study explicitly how maps are used during reading, and how these varied uses influence the cognitive and emotional consequences of the reading experience.